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Well
Dressing
Main towns: Ashford-in-the-Water, Tissington
Well Dressing festivals are held at different villages from Spring to
october. The Tourist Information Centre will be able to
advise exactly where and when the Well Dressings are to take place. This
beautiful old custom is all but unique to Derbyshire. Once known as 'well
flowering', it's thought to have originated in Pagan times.
Springs and wells have always been valued because water is a basic
necessity of every day life, but the early Christians forbade pagan water
worship. Gradually however, the custom was revived and many ancient
springs were purified and rededicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary or to
one of the Saints.
Well dressing is the art of decorating well or
springs with pictures made from natural, growing things i@t isn't always a
well or spring which is decorated. It can be @street tap or the place
where a well used to stand.
The dressings are based on wooden frames and the pictures are set in clay
filled wooden trays. They take hours to complete, often with villagers
working through the night to finish in the early hours of the festival
morning.
Some villages dress their wells in secret. Others
invite you to come along and watch - the best way to find out how it's
done!
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